Ever heard about 'music diplomacy'?

That’s the interesting report by Funfare’s Big Apple correspondent Edmund Silvestre who got it during Cuisia’s press conference with the Fil-Am media in New York City recently.

Did you know that Pres. Noynoy “P-Noy” Aquino’s new main guy in Washington, D.C., the Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose L. Cuisia Jr., has revealed that he has been tuning up his singing pipes lately in an effort to do what it takes to make things done to promote the interest of all Filipinos in the US and back home?

Of course, Edmund quoted the former Central Bank governor as saying, “I won’t volunteer to croon,” but if pressured, he would oblige in the name of diplomacy. And he even has two songs prepared “in case of emergency”  the OPM love song Kapantay Ay Langit and the “dangerous” karaoke piece My Way (which got a number of drunken singers killed for doing it off-key).

Added Edmund, “When it comes to charming Washington dignitaries and the Filipino-American community’s movers and shakers, Cuisia has a lot to learn from his immediate predecessor, Amb. Willy Gaa, who has mastered the art of diplomacy through music.” 

But Cuisia believes that in due time, he would also get accustomed to belting a song or two when the need arises.

”It’s not actually new to me,” he said about singing before a group of people. “When I was still with Central Bank and I attended a meeting of South East Asian Central Bank governors, my counterparts requested me to sing. I didn’t want to sing and they told me, ‘Why won’t you sing, aren’t you Filipino?’ They said every Filipino knows how to sing. So I would promise them that I would sing the next time we met again. And so the following year, they didn’t forget. I sang my two favorite songs.”

Said Edmund, “So far, no one in the US East Coast at least has had heard Cuisia’s singing voice.” 

When asked how good is he on stage, Cuisia simply responded, “Good enough....but not as good as my favorite singers Martin Nievera, Gary Valenciano, Lea Salonga and Frank Sinatra.”

Edmund noted that entertaining through music, of course, is just an icing of what his real duties are as an envoy of peace, security and progress. Since succeeding Amb. Gaa in Washington on April 2, Cuisia said he is focused on three major work policies set by the Aquino administration  economic diplomacy that covers trade, investment and tourism; enhancing national security particularly building up the Philippines’ capability in counter-terrorism through US military assistance; and ensuring the protection of all Filipino nationals from, among other things, human trafficking.

He disclosed that P-Noy handed him a three-page instruction to promote the interests of the Philippines and its people, while strengthening Philippine-American ties. Foremost of them, he said, is to drum up stronger support to ensure the passage of H.R. 3039 or the SAVE Our Industries Act in US Congress that will create thousands of jobs for Filipinos and induce hundreds of millions of dollars to Philippine economy.

”At the peak of the apparel industry in the early 2,000, as many as 600,000 Filipino workers were employed,” he noted. “It’s down to 150,000 now. The level of exports of the apparel went up to about $2.2 billion, and it’s down to just a billion now.”

SAVE Act didn’t pass in the last 111th Congress and the Philippines is hopeful the measure will be re-filed in the 112th Congress.

Cuisia told the Fil-Am media that his appeal to the Filipino community  with its over three-million strength in the US  is to write their congressmen to support the bill that will revitalize the apparel industry both in the Philippines and the US.

”Even if I sound like a broken record, I won’t stop appealing to the Filipino community,” he said. “They’ve got to help...they can utilize the SAVE website (http://saveoutindustriesact.org), and its Facebook and Twitter interfaces to reach to as many kababayan as possible.”

Cuisia also appealed to all Filipino-Americans to exercise their right to vote in US elections to give the Fil-Am community a stronger political voice.

”Unfortunately, while Filipinos have big numbers in the US, they don’t exercise their rights to register and vote,” Cuisia said. “If you want the Fil-Am vote to be an important force like other ethnic minorities in the US, you must register and cast your vote regardless of your party affiliation because congressmen and senators are also monitoring how Filipinos in America vote.

”If they cannot see the pattern how Fil-Ams vote, then how will they listen and respond to you as a community? Sayang because Filipinos have the numbers and also quality...many of Fil-Ams are professionals and achievers. In a recent study in California, it found out that Fil-Ams are among the highest paid in the state.”

Edmund added, “The no-nonsense political appointee is a De La Salle University graduate with a double degree  AB Social Sciences and BS Commerce (major in Accounting)  graduating magna cum laude in both. He was a university scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, with a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Wharton School of Finance.

“Interestingly, Wharton bestowed on Cuisia last May 17 the prestigious Joseph Wharton Awards for Lifetime Achievement during its 41st annual gala dinner at Park Hyatt in Washington, D.C. The award honors exceptional leaders who have had an amazing career within the alumni community of Wharton School and Cuisia is the first Filipino recipient of the award.”

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